Implementation Documentation

Introduction

In Microsoft Dynamics 365, controlling access to a table is usually handled through Security Roles and Privileges. However, there are scenarios where users may have access to a custom table but should not see that table in a particular area of the application navigation.

This article explains how I handled such a scenario using the Sitemap Privileges feature in Dynamics 365.

The requirement was to make a custom entity visible in the Sitemap only to administrators, while keeping it hidden from regular users.

Requirement

We had a custom entity that needed to be available only to administrators through the Dynamics 365 application Sitemap.

The initial security configuration was:

• Administrators had access to the custom entity.
• Regular users also had Read and Create privileges for the custom entity.
• Because regular users had sufficient privileges on the entity, the entity was visible in the Sitemap to those users.

The requirement was:

The custom entity should be visible in the Sitemap only to users who have the required administrative privilege, while it should remain hidden for regular users.

Why Read and Create Were Not Enough

Privilege	Regular User
Read	Yes
Write	Yes
Share	No

Because the users had Read access to the custom entity, the entity was available in the application Sitemap. Therefore, Read and Create could not be used to distinguish regular users from administrators.

Solution: Sitemap Privilege

We used the Sitemap Privileges configuration on the custom entity’s Sitemap Subarea.

The Sitemap privilege was configured to require the Share privilege for the custom entity.

1. Sitemap Configuration

The Sitemap Subarea for the custom entity was configured with the required privilege.

Sitemap configuration:

Entity: Custom Entity
Privilege: Share

Figure 1: Sitemap Subarea configured with the Share privilege

2. Security Role : Share Privilege

Verify the Security Role assigned to the user. The regular user does not have the Share privilege for the custom entity.

Figure 2: Share privilege is not granted to the regular user

Conclusion

The Sitemap Privileges feature provides a useful way to control the visibility of individual entities in the Dynamics 365 application navigation.

In this implementation, regular users already had Read and Create privileges for the custom entity, so those privileges could not be used to distinguish them from administrators.

By using the Share privilege as the required Sitemap privilege, we were able to achieve the desired result:

• Regular users → Custom entity hidden
• Administrators → Custom entity visible
• Existing Read, Write, Update and Delete permissions → Remained unchanged
• No unnecessary changes to the users’ existing data access were required

This approach is particularly useful when an organization needs to keep a table accessible from a security perspective but wants to control which users see the corresponding navigation item in a Dynamics 365 application.

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